CBFC Goes Online; Certification to Become Paperless & Transparent

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, headed by minister Venkaiah Naidu, launched E-Cinepramaan or Online Film Certification System yesterday. This, it is being hoped, would not only make the controversy-besieged CBFC paperless, but also transparent.

Venkaiah Naidu, I&B Minister This is a big step towards making the CBFC paperless and transparent, enabling effective monitoring and real-time progress tracking for applicants.

Naidu took to social media to share the news.

Happy to launch this new experiment #CBFC e-CinePramaan. Development & good governance go together. This is guiding principle of our govt. pic.twitter.com/Lyd02cpGvd

E-Cinepramaan will enable producers to track the status of their application online and would be inform them through smses and e-mails about any required action. The system also has inbuilt alerts to ensure that time-limits are adhered to. For short films, promos and trailers spanning less than 10 minutes, submissions can even be made online.

In e-cinepramaan, status of each application would be visible online in the dashboard of the producer / concerned #CBFC official. pic.twitter.com/st5eSqvtgJ

The minister also indicated an overhaul of the certification process as per the recommendations of the committee constituted under veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, which submitted its report last April. The committee had suggested new categories of certification and recommended the Board to enforce fewer cuts. They also suggested that the CBFC only be a film certification body.

Venkaiah Naidu The government will revisit the entire process of film certification and see how it can be restructured. We have begun the process of consultations on the Benegal Committee report.